paid for compensation for delay or damage to merchandise traffic carried on the State railways in the year 1884 was £7,772, or ·25 per cent. on a revenue of £3,088,109, and on the Dutch Rhenish Railway it was £274, or ·16 per cent., on a revenue of £173,079. In the United Kingdom the amount was £202,400, or, ·54 per cent., and in England and Wales £17,140, or, ·55 per cent., on a revenue from merchandise and mineral traffic of £37,670,592 and £31,973,011 respectively. Of these last amounts £15,528,656 and £13,398,433 were in respect of minerals on which no compensation is, in practice, payable.[57] [57] In Germany and France the law as regards liability is practically the same as in this country. The rates for merchandise in Holland and Belgium are the lowest of any of the countries. Independently of the construction of the lines being cheaper, the wages paid to servants less, and the State being the principal proprietors, natural causes favour this. From the flatness of those countries and their consequently having exceptionally level railroads, the average loads far exceed what can be carried in the United Kingdom. In Holland 450 to upwards of 500 tons are the usual train loads. Even on the Northern Railway of France an average load of 400 to 450 tons is common. Owing to the gradients of the lines and the speed of the trains, such weights are rarely carried in this country. The consequence of the paying load being less is, of course, that the working expenses are proportionately greater. Branch lines in this country have, as has been already stated, been carried into sparsely populated districts to an extent unknown in France, Germany, Belgium or Holland, and the English railways afford greater facilities by reason of a larger proportion of the lines being double. The following table shows the state of things in 1884:-- -----+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------- | | Double Line. | Single Line. | Year.| |--------+--------+--------+--------+ Total | | Length.| Per | Length.| Per | mileage. | | |Centage.| |Centage.| -----+-----------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+---------- 1884 |United Kingdom | 10,239 | 54·28 | 8,625 | 45·72 | 18,864 1884 |England and Wales| 8,504 | 63·75 | 4,836 | 36·25 | 13,340 1884 |France | 7,470 | 38·84 | 11,765 | 61·16 | 19,235 1884 |Germany | 6,724 | 29·74 | 15,887 | 70·26 | 22,611 1884 |Holland[58] | 435 | 26·90 | 1,182 | 73·10 | 1,617 1884 |Belgium | 943 | 34·80 | 1,768 | 65·20 | 2,711 -----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+----------